Karachi, : National Testing Service (NTS) that conducts the Graduate Assessment Test (GAT) made compulsory by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for admission to MPhil/PhD and its scholarship programs, has failed to issue the result sheets of candidates who appeared for the assessment test in July. Moreover, as instructed by the NTS, the students who sent the website-published results for attestation to the concerned authority are yet to receive any response. The irresponsibility on the part of NTS officials has disqualified the candidates from applying in MPhil/PhD programs at public and private sector institutes because under HEC rules, they do not have any proof of clearing the test. While the NTS authorities despite repeated requests refused to provide the exact number of candidates who appeared at different centres in Karachi. The NTS website informs that the results of those students who got 50 percent or more marks would be issued until July 15, 2009; however, it has failed to issue the result sheets to date. Recently, the Karachi University advertised admissions in MS programmes at different faculties with GAT clearance as mandatory, leaving hundreds of students who passed the tests in a state of uncertainty. It must be remembered that mismanagement in NTS and HEC has become a routine matter but the government has totally ignored these departments. Zain, a graduate of economics who appeared in the test on July 5, 2009 said that despite several phone calls and emails, he did not receive any response from the NTS authorities. He said they are not paying attention to the problems of students outside Islamabad and added the mismanagement has shattered his dream of starting for the MS programme this year. I called them many times but they do not talk on the issue, said another student Mushfiq, saying the authorities at least should have issued a notification explaining why the results had not been issued. This scribe also tried to contact the NTS numerous times but no official was available for comments. Two emails were also sent on their email address, but no response was received until the filing of this report.

NTS stands for National Testing Service. Within the essential premise of raising the quality of education, an important objective of NTS is to establish a credible, technically appropriate and accurate system of performance evaluation for students of various educational institutions at various levels. It thus assists in carrying out an estimated ranking of students for admissions in various educational institutions.

KARACHI – Teachers and students of the Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) have strongly criticised the varsityâ€™s decision for hiring NTS (National Testing Service) to carry out admission tests of graduates aspiring for MS and PhD programmes, as NTS administration has started making blunders.
According to complaints of candidates and teachers gathered by The Nation, â€œCandidates are facing enormous problems in submitting their enrolment forms for an entry test for the said programme as NTS allowed only 9 days to applicants for this purpose, which is not sufficient. These 9 days include four half days and two holidays.â€
â€œNTS restricted the candidates to submit their forms in three banks including UBL, ABL and MCB. However, failure of online banking for the last four days, according to students, kept them away from submitting the forms.â€
It is pertinent to mention here that an advertisement for the admission was published on January 29 only in one Urdu newspapers; while the last date for submission of forms was February 7. Before the last date of submission NTS was charging Rs600 but after February 7 Rs1,000 is being charged which is unfair. However, Rs50 out of Rs1,000 is being charged by the FUUAST.
It is worth mentioning that the test will be held on February 22 (today) at Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology during morning hours, while it is expected that 350 to 400 students will be appeared in the test.
A senior teacher at the varsity said that the reliability of the NTS had already been exposed at the Karachi University (KU) as MS and PhD programme had yet to be started due to some serious errors in entrance test conducted by NTS.

NTS, HEC putting students future at stake

Karachi, Dec 03: National Testing Service (NTS) that conducts the Graduate Assessment Test (GAT) made compulsory by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for admission to MPhil/PhD and its scholarship programs, has failed to issue the result sheets of candidates who appeared for the assessment test in July.

Moreover, as instructed by the NTS, the students who sent the website-published results for attestation to the concerned authority are yet to receive any response.

The irresponsibility on the part of NTS officials has disqualified the candidates from applying in MPhil/PhD programs at public and private sector institutes because under HEC rules, they do not have any proof of clearing the test.

While the NTS authorities despite repeated requests refused to provide the exact number of candidates who appeared at different centres in Karachi.

The NTS website informs that the results of those students who got 50 percent or more marks would be issued until July 15, 2009; however, it has failed to issue the result sheets to date.

Recently, the Karachi University advertised admissions in MS programmes at different faculties with GAT clearance as mandatory, leaving hundreds of students who passed the tests in a state of uncertainty. It must be remembered that mismanagement in NTS and HEC has become a routine matter but the government has totally ignored these departments.

Zain, a graduate of economics who appeared in the test on July 5, 2009 said that despite several phone calls and emails, he did not receive any response from the NTS authorities.

He said “they are not paying attention to the problems of students outside Islamabad” and added the mismanagement has shattered his dream of starting for the MS programme this year.

“I called them many times but they do not talk on the issue,” said another student Mushfiq, saying the authorities at least should have issued a notification explaining why the results had not been issued.

This scribe also tried to contact the NTS numerous times but no official was available for comments. Two emails were also sent on their email address, but no response was received until the filing of this report.
Source: Daily times

It is indeed a regret to say that the standard of NTS has
fallen down to the worse. In the “Blue Book” which I took in Common Wealth
Scholarship 2009, there were questions wrongly written in the book especially
the choices given were blunders especially in Analytical portion.

For instance the reprinting of same choice more than once in
the same question and in another question all choices negates the fundamental
clause of arguments thus making whole question unanswerable.

This defies the credibility of NTS of such responsible job.
If possible award full marks for all wrongly placed questions/choices in exam
sheet.

LAHORE, May 24(Dawn): The Punjab law department on Wednesday declared admissions to public-sector universities through entrance tests by the National Testing Service (NTS) without any legal effect, ruling that this could be done only after making requisite amendments to the universities’ admission regulations.

According to the comment obtained by Dawn, the admission to various courses in the public-sector universities was to be regulated under the admission regulations of each university framed in accordance with the provisions of their respective laws. Generally, there are similar provisions for making admission regulations in the laws of the public-sector universities in the province.

The provisions of the university law provide that admission regulations may be prepared and proposed by the academic council of a university and the same should be approved by its syndicate. Each university is entitled to adopt its own admission policy through admission regulations.

Making the admissions contingent or conditional with the appearance in NTS tests without incorporating corresponding amendments to the admission regulations of the universities “will not be in accordance with laws governing affairs of these universities.”

Furthermore, the law department declares, a university is a body corporate under its act or ordinance and recognised as an autonomous body under the Punjab Government Rules of Business, 1974. Compulsory pre-requisite of NTS cannot be imposed on the universities unless they change their own regulations in accordance with the provisions of their respective laws.

It says there is no proof on record that any public-sector university has modified its admission regulations to make the NTS tests compulsory for admissions.

“Once an authority in a university takes any measures or passes any order, the governor in his capacity as chancellor may revise the order on the grounds of illegality in exercise of his revisions jurisdiction. However, in the performance of his functions as chancellor, the governor is bound to act in the same manner as the governor of province acts and is bound under Article 105 of the Constitution,” it adds.

* NTS director Haroonul Rasheed says no tuition centres associated with the service

By Adnan Lodhi

LAHORE: The examination of the National Testing Service (NTS) will not be out of the syllabus and student should not be confused about it, said NTS Director Dr Haroonul Rasheel on Saturday.

Following the decision of the Punjab University (PU) to give choice to public universities to select students through the NTS or not, a number of private academies have begun NTS preparation classes. Students, however, told Daily Times that they were confused whether the test would be from the given syllabus outline or out of the syllabus.

The PU has declared NTS entry test compulsory for admission in BA/BSc Honours admissions for the coming academic session. After the PU’s decision, several academies like the KIPS academy and the Rana academy are offering preparations for the NTS. On the other side, the NTS Islamabad director has warned students that they had no link with academies and the course line would be followed for the testing, while academies are guaranteeing the passing of the NTS on the other. Students are confused because academies have developed different courses for the NTS test.

Intermediate student Muddasir, who is preparing for the NTS test, told Daily Times that he had appeared two times in the test but what he learnt at his academy was different than what he actually had in the examination. He said that at the academy they were focusing on mathematics, chemistry and physics but the 75 percent of the paper comprised of English literature and mathematics. Amir Alyas, a student of another academy, told Daily Times that according to the NTS a candidate had to obtain 50 percent marks for success. He said that according to the NTS, the subject of English contained 75 percent and rest of 25 comprised on mathematics. He said the academy teacher had confused students as he was focusing on physics and chemistry.

Another student Naveed Ahmed told Daily Times that he had joined various academies to prepare for the testing. He said the course outline of academies was different from each other.

The KIPS administration officer told Daily Times that the course of NTS was not specific and that it was changing with every test. He said students should have command over science subjects along with mathematics and English. He said that it was the reason they were focusing on these subjects. He said more than 80 percent of KIPS students had passed the NTS test last year. He said about 60,000 students from Punjab had appeared in the test last time and the ratio of successful candidates was not satisfactory.

The NTS Islamabad director said that teachers of various universities decided in a meeting the selected course of the NTS. He said the paper would be in two parts and would cover national and international issues. He said the teachers responsible for preparing the test were instructed to keep in mind the level of students. He said private academies were mistaken that the paper would be out of the course. He said the NTS had recommended the course in a book that was easily available in the market, adding that the paper would not be out of the course. He said that it was needed to make the NTS simpler and convenient for students. He said it would be batter for students to go through course books along with studying at academies.